To celebrate the 80th birthday of the great spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Sharon Salzberg recounts her first encounter with him and the importance of his example — in words and in deed.

An inspirational profile of one of those modern-day heroes, SAS, a doctor whose key insights turned the tide of the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone — an exemplar of quiet commitment and unending courage who saved thousands of lives by bridging worlds.

Feces can be a powerful thing, but not in the way that you might gather. Before becoming a father, Omid Safi thought love was something you feel or experience, the everyday ritual of changing his daughter's diaper taught him about a love that's stronger than shit.

The act of extending a hand, of seeking, can sometimes leave you humbled by an amazing experience. Watch Abigail Washburn and her band The Village find unexpected rewards at a dinner party with local musicians in China.

Our readers and our columnists explore Vincent Harding's question in light of the Charleston tragedy — and how we can reclaim our fears and our hopes in this great experiment. Plus, some things I've been reading this week (for your eyes only).

As we become global citizens and focus on issues around the world, we neglect to look out the window of our back yards and into our local communities. A reminder to be part of the locality where we live too.

We are in need of a new vision and visionaries who remind us not of the “greatness” of America, but of its goodness writes Omid Safi. A call for forgiveness, but one that's rooted in love and justice — and for an America that is yet to be.

The collective experiences of Black Americans can result in generational trauma that is "stored in the body." With the stories of McKinney, Texas and Charleston, South Carolina as a backdrop, a man calls for us to retrain our brains and break free from our limiting perceptions of one another to heal these divides.

When the crush of a beige cubicle and endless meetings deaden creative impulses, a newborn baby girl prompts an explosion of creativity — and the celebratory, enthusiastic person the author's dream job had taken away.

Fortified by forward-looking Muslim leaders and thinkers in the United States, a Jewish man seeks to "hear truth from whatever source it comes" even, and perhaps especially, those with whom he may never see eye-to-eye with about faith itself.